What's in a Name?
by MsTiggy
Summary: The troubles are over and Audrey, Nathan, and Duke want to start their family. Futurefic. Oneshot (for now?).


"How about I'll be Papa and you be Daddy?" Duke said before sipping his beer.

"Isn't Papa more of a grandfather name?" Nathan replied.

"Well, our kid won't have any grandparents to speak of, so it won't be an issue. Besides, Pops is definitely a father name."

"Alright, Dad works for me if Papa works for you."

Duke offered his beer bottle to toast in honor of the decision. "Settled."

"What's settled?" Asked Audrey as she made her way out to the deck of the Gray Gull, where the two men had been sitting waiting on her for the past half hour. The setting sun painted the sky in reds and oranges and the air was pleasantly cool with a soft breeze. The perfect Haven day.

"What our kid will call us," Duke explained. "I'm Papa, Nathan's Daddy, and obviously you're Mom."

Audrey raised her eyebrows at this declaration. "Is that so? Don't you think the kid should actually be conceived before we start making parental decisions?"

"Duke's just trying to plan ahead. I think he's more excited about this idea than he wants to let on." Nathan said with a fond look at his husband, who smiled back and flushed slightly under his tanned skin.

"Well then I'm sure you'll be excited to hear that I just took a test and tonight could be a very good night to make a baby," Audrey said with a sly smile.

The two men looked at each other and grinned. "Well what are we waiting for then?" Asked Duke. He stood, finished off his beer in two large swallows and started in the direction of the car, with Nathan only a few steps behind him. Audrey watched them walk away for a minute before following suit. She loved her husbands so much.

#

Later that night, in the California King bed they'd splurged on after they bought their house, the three lovers lay sprawled in a tangle of arms and legs, catching their breaths and calming their heartbeats.

"That felt different," Audrey said sleepily.

"Bad different?" Duke asked. "Because you seemed to enjoy it at the time."

"No, not bad, just... I don't know..." she tried to capture her thoughts. "I mean, we might have just made a baby. It felt more... intense somehow."

Nathan turned his head to kiss Audrey's temple. "I know what you mean. It was intense for me too."

"Yeah, I guess I can see what you're talking about. I wasn't really thinking about that at the time, though." Duke supplied in his characteristically cocksure way.

"If you are pregnant, which one of us do you think... you know..." Nathan started to ask.

"Supplied the seed?" Duke finished.

"No." Audrey said emphatically. "We agreed that it wouldn't matter which one of you is technically the biological father. We are a family and both of you are fathers to any child we create, no matter what."

"We know, Parker," Nathan soothed, kissing her temple again and stroking her leg where it lay draped over his hips.

"We'll only test to find out if the kid wants or if there is some medical reason the doctors have to know." Audrey reiterated what they had decided when they first hashed out their plan to become parents.

"As long as she has your laugh," Duke said softly, stretching a hand across Audrey's abdomen. "And Nathan's eyes. And my sense of humor."

Nathan and Audrey both chuckled fondly at their husband's words. "I love you, Duke," Audrey said. "I love you, Nathan."

"I love you, too. Both of you," Nathan replied.

"Love you, too, Aud. Love you, Nate," Duke said as he settled into his pillow for sleep.

Soon they were all fast asleep, dreaming different but similar dreams of the family they were creating.

#

"Well, I'm officially late," Audrey announced as she walked into the kitchen of their house two weeks later. It was morning and her guys were drinking coffee, sitting on stools at the counter.

"It's only 8:30, we have plenty of time to get to the station," Nathan replied.

"Not that kind of late, love," she replied, trying to hold back a grin.

Duke's eyes widened and a broad smile spread across his face while Nathan's brows furrowed in confusion.

"Do you have a test here? Have you taken it yet?" The words came tumbling out of Duke's mouth in a rush and he stood and practically skipped around the counter to embrace Audrey.

"Test for what?" Nathan asked, still clueless.

Audrey kissed Duke's cheek before turning to face Nathan across the counter. "Think, Nathan. You're not confused."

He glanced between his spouses and Audrey could swear she practically _heard_ the light bulb come on when his eyes widened in the same way Duke's had just a minute ago. "You're-? For real? Are you?"

"Don't get too excited yet, guys, it could mean nothing," Audrey answered. "To answer your question, Duke, no I haven't taken a test yet. I don't have any here. We should stop at the pharmacy on the way to work, Nathan."

"Yeah. Okay. Pharmacy. Let's go." Nathan rose from his stool and started towards the front door.

"Hey, Nate," Duke called after him. "You forgetting something?"

"What?" Nathan looked at them from the entryway, eyes still unusually wide.

"Uh, pants?" Duke gestured to his lower half, which was currently clad only in boxer shorts.

Nathan looked down. "Right. Pants. Good idea." He proceeded up the stairs to presumably get dressed.

Audrey shared a glance with Duke. "Make sure he doesn't try to leave the house with his underwear on the outside or anything, would you?" She asked him.

"He's going to be worthless when you go into labor, isn't he?" Duke asked, resignedly.

"Oh I plan on having Gloria on speed dial. She's the only one I trust to keep a cool enough head to operate a motor vehicle in that situation."

Duke put on a mock-hurt expression. "Where's the trust? I'm totally cool."

"Yeah, you're Frank at the Sands, baby." Audrey softened her sarcastic statement with a kiss before gently pushing Duke toward the stairs. "Now go help Nathan before he gets his head stuck in a pant leg."

#

Audrey and Nathan stopped at the pharmacy and picked up two different brands of pregnancy tests on their way to work that morning. The back of the box said that she should take the test first thing in the morning to get the most accurate result, so they stored the pharmacy bag in the trunk and tried their best to forget about it for the day.

Nathan had eventually regained his mind enough to function, but he couldn't stop staring at Audrey while they were in their shared office at the police station. She noticed and called him out on it more than once during the day, but still his eyes drifted to her over and over again; thoughts of the life potentially growing inside her distracting him from the report he should have been writing about the latest crimes and misdemeanors that had occurred in Haven.

The troubles had stopped over a year ago, but no one was 100% sure that they were gone for good. For the moment, however, the police department was relatively quiet, only having to deal with the usual activity of a town of roughly 25,000 people. That meant that on this particular Friday, all Audrey and Nathan had to do was sit in their office and complete paperwork.

By lunch, Audrey was so bored she was tempted to go commit a crime just to have something to do.

"Let's go to the Gull for lunch," she suggested to Nathan.

Despite having been staring straight at her, he blinked and said "What?"

"Lunch? Gray Gull? I want to see Duke and I _need_ to get out of this office."

"Yeah, alright."

At the Gull the two officers found their husband tending bar. They took barstools at the end of the bar and only had to wait a moment for him to notice them.

He ambled over to them with a smile. "What brings the two hottest cops in town to my humble establishment this fine day?" Leaning across the bar he gave first Nathan then Audrey a quick peck on the lips. "Any good news to share?"

"No news yet," Audrey said. "Have to wait until morning."

"Morning?! Come on! I'm dying here!"

"Box says morning, so morning it will be," she shrugged. "It's not like the result is going to change between now and then."

"Why don't you distract yourself by making us some lunch?" Nathan asked hopefully.

"I'm tending bar, in case you hadn't noticed, but I will be happy to instruct one of my crack employees to make some food for you."

"Burger, please, hold the onions." Audrey requested.

"Same." Nathan added.

"Coming right up."

#

The sudden chill on her back woke Audrey the next morning. Looking behind her, she found that her source of warmth on that side had departed.

"Sorry, didn't mean to wake you," Duke said when he noticed her stir.

"It's okay, I was waking up anyway," she said groggily.

Nathan moaned on her other side and turned to face her, but didn't open his eyes. She looked at him fondly and kissed his eyelids to wake him.

"Hmmm..." He said.

"Wake up, sleepy head," she said softly.

When he didn't show any signs of waking any further Duke circled around the bed to his side and bent down over him. "Wake uuuuuup," he said close to Nathan's ear before gently biting his ear lobe.

Nathan grunted and opened one eye. "Something's up, now, that's for sure."

Audrey giggled and squirmed away from his grabbing hands, rising from the bed before he could trap her in it. "Hold that thought," she said, "I have to go pee on some sticks real quick."

Suddenly both men were wide awake. Nathan sat up in the bed and Duke sat down on the edge beside him, both staring at her.

"Ready for this?" She asked.

They both nodded and took identical deep breaths, but said nothing.

"Here I go!" Audrey said, heading to the bathroom, where she had carefully laid out the pregnancy tests the night before so they were ready for this moment.

A short time later she emerged from the bathroom holding two plastic sticks in one hand. "Five minutes," she told the men, who were still sitting in the exact same position they had been when she had left them. "Come on, let's make some coffee."

Duke snapped out of his stupor first and stood. "Yeah, sounds good."

The three of them made their way downstairs and into the kitchen. Audrey sat on one of the stools and placed the tests on the counter in front of her, then covered them with a hand so she wouldn't be tempted to stare at them.

"On the counter? Gross, we eat there!" Duke scolded her when he saw what she was doing.

"The pee part is covered, and I promise to wash the counter later, okay?" Audrey said exasperatedly.

He made to protest more, but Nathan put a hand on his cheek and directed Duke's eyes to his own. "Leave it for now, okay?"

Duke gazed at Nathan for a moment and nodded, biting his bottom lip. "Sorry, I guess I'm nervous."

"That makes two of us." Nathan replied, moving his hands to stroke Duke's biceps in a comforting way.

Duke leaned into Nathan and rested his forehead against the other man's for a moment before kissing him softly on the lips and pulling away. "Coffee. Who needs coffee?"

"I'll take some," Nathan replied, circling the counter and taking the stool next to Audrey.

"Me too," Audrey said, leaning against Nathan and resting her head on his shoulder.

Duke hummed absentmindedly as he went about grinding the beans and filling the French press with hot water from the electric kettle. Once that was done he too came around the counter and sat at a stool on the other side of Audrey.

"Has it been five minutes yet?" He asked.

"Probably," Audrey replied. "I don't know, I didn't really keep track."

"I think it has," Nathan supplied. "Go ahead, let's see."

Audrey took a deep breath and removed her hand from the tests.

The three of them held their breaths as they looked at the results. Audrey had opted for the simplest tests possible, where they displayed either 'pregnant' or 'not pregnant' instead of whatever blue or pink lines some of the others did. She had taken two because she knew that, however small a chance, these things were sometimes wrong, and she wanted to be double sure.

After staring at the results on both tests for a few seconds, just so she could be sure her eyes were seeing what she thought they were seeing, she broke into a huge smile.

"Pregnant," she whispered. "I'm pregnant!"

"You're pregnant!" Duke exclaimed much louder than she just had. He was grinning from ear to ear and he grabbed her head and sloppily kissed her face wherever he could reach while her eyes remained fixed on the two plastic strips in front of her.

Nathan let out a small laugh, also smiling broadly. "You're having a baby, Parker. _We're_ having a baby!" He looked in wonder between Audrey and Duke.

"We're having a baby!" Audrey confirmed, looking up for the first time since revealing the results. She gazed into Nathan's eyes and then looked to Duke, both men smiling at her with love and amazement shining on their faces.

Their family may be unusual, but no one could deny that the three of them had so much love between them that it was impossible to suggest they should be any different after seeing them together. Their child would grow up with three loving parents and an entire town of eccentric but well-meaning neighbors to look after them.

Audrey placed a hand on her still-flat stomach and thought to her child 'You will be so loved, little one.' And she felt more at home than she ever had in her life.

* * *

 **A/N: Thanks for reading! I should have been writing Gypsy Beans, but this popped into my head and demanded to come out. Oneshot for the moment, but I'm open to coming back and continuing it should anyone be interested in such a thing...**


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